Book Freak: Love in Darkness by E.M. Tippets

23 August 2013

Love in Darkness by E.M. Tippets - Book Tour, Book Review

Title: Love in Darkness (Shattered Castles, #2)

Author: E.M. Tippetts

Release date: May 21, 2013

Age Group: New Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tour organized by: AToMR Tours

Love in Darkness (Shattered Castles #2)

Alex had everything when he was with Madison. But the darkness within him wouldn't go away. After two years apart, he returns to Pelican Bluffs and to the girl he never wanted to leave.

Madison wants to give their love another chance, but Alex can't fight fate. He is what he is. Ruined. Crazy like his mother. And Madison deserves so much more. When his secrets spill out into their small town, Alex has a choice to make. Hide away in the darkness forever, or let love in.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

Castles on the Sand (Shattered Castles #1)

If there’s one thing Madison Lukas understands, it’s pain. The pain she feels when her mother ignores her completely. The pain her best friend endures as her parents starve her as punishment. The pain of a dangerous boy whose mother has to be carried away by law enforcement on a regular basis.

She gets it. She feels the pain of others as if it were her own.

But when a mysterious man claiming to be her long lost brother appears with promises of relieving her suffering, trusting him could reveal more truths than Madison is ready for. Because the truth can hurt, too.

Goodreads | Amazon | B&N

(Castles on the Sand Review)

Madison Lukas lives at home with her mom who barely notices her, she has a best friend who can completely turn into a worse enemy if the situation permits, a guy whom she likes and would love to hook up with her but not acknowledge her publicly, another guy who belongs to the Mormons and is openly admitting his ‘liking for her’, and then another guy who has been voluntarily mute for years is starting to pay her attention. Too much? Oh there’s more – all of a sudden, a man knocks on her doorstep claiming that he’s her brother. Information overload, I know. But for a girl who claims to have a boring life, and pretty much the only social life she has is being the DD to her best friend – I can say that her life is pretty much hectic at this point.

I felt bad for Madison, clearly she needs someone to boost her self-confidence. Even though she appears to be pretty, she thinks she isn’t. No matter how many times John would tell her, she doesn’t believe him. She thinks she’s fat and pasty. No thanks to her mom who constantly ignores her, or if she has time to spare, bullies her. But it’s not only her mom who does that – there’s her best friend, some school friends and her pseudoboyfriend as well. She couldn’t stand up and fight for herself. From the start, I wanted to shake some senses into her to make her see that Kalie is not really a good friend. She’s a b*tch who only thinks of herself. And JP – he might be cute and smart but he’s an ass. If you like someone, really like them, you wouldn’t be a booty call. EVER!!!! I wish she put up a fight earlier in the book because I hate to see her being trashed like that and not do anything to save herself. It took some agonizing pages before Madison got into her feet and stood up for herself (thank goodness!) – but when she did, she was spectacular.

Abuse and bullying comes in different forms, and E.M. Tippets enumerated that one by one this book. She threaded mental illness with tact. Some people might be cringing when they hear about it – ignore or ridicule people who have it. But E.M. Tippets placed it in a different kind of light which will give readers a different perspective about deviations mental health. Yes, they may have problems with it, but there are still people, and they have more needs than an ordinary person have. It is always easy to ignore, to laugh at them than to understand them. Maybe that’s why people chose to act the former.

Alex – he’s an amazing character with a big heart. He loves his mother so much, not caring about what other people may think about her. For a young age, he’s burden to take care of her mother, and although it burns me to watch him watching his mother being taken away – I think it was for the best. His mother needs the help he could not provide.

E.M. Tippets also made sure that LDS wasn’t forced or advertise into her readers, she chose to introduce it, put in facts (even though some are not nice) and allow readers to know more about the religion.

Castles on the Sand is a great read. It's enlightening, heartwarming and the characters will truly creep into your hearts. I’m looking forward for the next book – Love in Darkness and know about Alex more!

RATING:

Emily Mah Tippetts writes romance under the name E.M. Tippetts and science fiction and fantasy under the name Emily Mah. Originally from New Mexico, she now lives in London with her family. Before she was a published author, she was an attorney who specialized in real estate, contracts, and estate planning, especially literary estate planning.